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Friday, September 2, 2016

We are big fans of train travel, it's an excellent way to see places without having to drive in unfamiliar territory. But we have never done a train trip in Australia, until now!

The Indian Pacific is named for the two oceans it connects. A four day, 4,352km journey that takes you from one side of Australia to the other. You travel the longest, straightest stretch of railway track in the world as you cross the Nullabor Plain, which is in stark contrast to the beauty of the Blue Mountains.

Departing from Perth, our first stop was in Kalgoorlie, which is home to the staggering 3.6km wide Super Pit - an open-cut gold mine that has yielded riches 24 hours a day since 1989.

Those mining trucks are unbelievably big:

(Sorry, no photos of the pit itself, it was too dark!)

The next stop is a town called Cook, and calling it a town is a bit of a stretch of the imagination. It's actually an abandoned town and serves only as a fueling stop for the trains that pass through on their long journeys across the continent.

Here's our train:

The next stop was Adelaide, it was freezing cold and pouring with rain so there are no photos of that lovely town. The final stop before heading into Sydney was Broken Hill.

This is not actually what Broken Hill looks like, but what it is surrounded by:

We went to the regional art gallery in Broken Hill and were highly impressed by the collection there.

After leaving Broken Hill we travelled through the night and next morning into Sydney. The trip through the Blue Mountains is very picturesque.

All in all it was a great holiday. The train travel was really fun, although sleeping on a fast moving train, even in a bed, is always challenging. It's a great way to see the countryside, and you get to eat excellent food and drink wonderful drinks along the journey!